China’s Rising Inequality

2192 Words5 Pages

“While there is significant variation across regions, within the cities and within the rural areas, the most significant inequality is between the urban and the rural” (Saich, 2011:316).
Introduction - Inequality in China
China, like anywhere else in the world, is not immune to the problems of inequality. Even though China has seen great economic growth over the past 20 years, the level of inequality has risen. The hukou system can be seen as a factor in creating inequality between citizens in China. This essay will look at the different types of inequalities that are faced by the Chinese people. There are many different types of inequalities in China, such as income, gender, ethnic, education and welfare inequalities, however this essay will look at the hukou, income and gender inequality that the Chinese people have to deal with in their everyday lives, as well as looking at what the Chinese people think about the rise in inequality.

The Hukou
The Chinese Hukou system, which limits people to work and live where they have been born and officially registered, can account for being responsible for a range of inequalities that are faced by the Chinese citizens, such as income, employment, education, and welfare and health. The Hukou seems to help these inequalities widen, as it treats those with a rural hukou as second class citizens. Afridi, Li, and Ren find in their 2012 Discussion Paper that the individual status that is linked with the Hukou that citizen possesses has a significant impact on their social identity. The rural-urban divide that is seen “in China is administratively created to control spatial labor mobility and reinforced through merely decades of differential treatment of rural-urban residents” (Afridi, et al, ...

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...) ‘For China, a New Kind of Feminism’ The New York Times [Online] - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/world/asia/for-china-a-new-kind-of-feminism.html?_r=0 [Accessed on 15th October 2013]
Whyte, M. K., (2010) ‘Do Chinese citizens want the government to do more to promote equality?’ In Gries, P. H., and Rosen, S., eds. 2010. Chinese Politics - State, society and the market. (Routledge, London and New York).
Yao, S., Zhang, Z., and Hanmer, L., (2004) ‘Growing inequality and poverty in China’ China Economic Review 15:145-163.
Hairong, Y., (2008) New Masters, New Servants: Migration, Development, and Women Workers in China. (Duke University Press; Durham).
China’s hukou system puts migrant workers at severe economic disadvantage - http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-05-01/chinas-hukou-system-puts-migrant-workers-severe-economic-disadvantage [Accessed on 5th November 2013]

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